<Begin Segment 23>

TI: And so they kept the four of you now. And then what happened?

FM: Then they let all the rest of the guys go, and they put us in company confinement. They built a stockade of barbed wire, not barbed wire, but fenced area. And they put us in that area there.

TI: Now with the four of you there, did you guys talk to Matsuda and ask him why he didn't say anything?

FM: No. We never did talk to him. Yeah, we called him chicken and all that stuff, but... [Laughs]

BK: So you talked to each other, but not to him.

FM: Yeah. No, we talked to him. We told him, "What a chicken. Why don't you say that you did it, and we can all go, you know." But he don't, he didn't say a word. So we were all confined in that area. And funny thing is, they have guard around that enclosure, you see. And there, there was some, just, that particular, one particular night, they had a movie showing down the area, about a hundred yards away. So we told the guy, "Hey, we going to see the movie." So Kash, myself, and Hayashi, all went to see the movie, the guard, he walking around nobody or nothing.

TI: [Laughs] So it was a pretty relaxed confinement?

FM: Yeah. After the movie, we come back and all our squad boys, you know, bringing in cases of beer into the stockade. We all sitting around drinking. The guard is walking around. [Laughs]

TI: That's funny. What did you think was going to happen to you when this was going on?

FM: Oh, thought they'd keep us for a little while, and then, they're going to let us out, let us go. And when we were called upon to get back on the line for fighting, they had to let us out, so, well, okay, we're back with our troops. So, at that time, Kash was staff sergeant that time, you see, and I was his assistant now. So, he let us go out with me assisting him; and we fought. And when we pulled back for rest area, we go, "We're back in the stockade again!"

TI: Now how did that make you feel? I mean, it was like you were just used to fight, and then when you weren't fighting, they'd put you back in the stockade.

FM: Yeah. I say, "Hey, you know, something's funny here." But we can't do anything. Just do what they tell us to do. Say, "Okay, you three men go down to the stockade there." Put us in there.

TI: Yeah.

FM: And then when company's ready to move out again, "Come on guys. Take your squad into combat." So we lead the squad back into combat.

TI: What about your officers? I would think that they would think that that was very unfair.

FM: Yeah, but, well, our officers, the officers above them is telling them what to do, so they cannot say anything.

TI: So it was almost like they were being ordered to use you to fight, but then, when the fighting was done, put you back in the stockade.

FM: Yeah, that's right.

TI: And the person who was giving those orders, was that the Colonel Pence?

FM: Pursall.

TI: Pursall, I mean. Pursall. Okay.

FM: I'm sure that was him, because he was a battalion commander at that time, so he's the one giving the orders.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.